Snow, Santa, and 2011

I am making myself stop and attempt to update this blog even though there are a dozen other tasks screaming for my attention tonight. Yet, if I don't squeeze out some sort of coherent update then this blog will turn into another item that has been pushed down to the bottom of my to do list where it will hang on for all it's worth, lest it be swept away into the endless abyss of not enough time/wish I would have/maybe one day, but not actually ever gonna happen.

Sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, chaos and disorder arrived at the Loya house. They have unpacked and made themselves quite cozy here in our humble abode. But, now that the Christmas decorations have been repacked and stored away it is time to give these unwanted house guests the boot.

In our line of work this is easier said than done. We are in Colorado, but were told that we'd be heading back to California around the first. Yesterday, I thought he'd be finished with work today, but today plans have changed once again. We were hoping to be further South before the next arctic front hits the Front Range this weekend. Instead we'll be heading to the Home Depot for some insulation.

So, as I sit here and type surrounded by clean laundry that still needs to be put away, I'm trying not to be overcome by Chaos and Disorder. Yes, the kids have too many toys, their room needs cleaned, items need to be taken to storage, the school year needs to be planned, (better yet what about tomorrow's lesson?), my van needs washed and fixed yet again, BUT I will not be done in. Instead I will sit here and post cute pictures and dwell on the fun stuff that is floating around in this Chaos soup.
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We began our Christmas season with dinner at the home of some very dear friends. This new mom was so amazing to prepare a beautiful dinner and even had toys out for our kids to play with. Plus, everything ready for them to help her make a cake. It was a great start to our Denver Christmas.

Later that week, we visited the Denver Children's Museum:

And I had to have my van worked on:

Then we had our first snow, and I was given an early Christmas gift. (see previous posts)

The kids sang Away in the Manger at Church on Christmas Eve:

We visited "Aunt Kerri" and family:

This Christmas also introduced us to the Advent Candy Bandit. Every year we fill our Advent calendar with 4 Hersey kisses behind each little door (see Advent in photo below) and we each enjoy one kiss every day in the month of December. Well this year the temptation proved to be more than our little man could stand. One morning, I walked into his room and found a few candy wrappers on his floor. He had eaten a whole days worth of candy while I was changing clothes. The following Saturday, he crawls up into our bed and starts chatting with his Daddy, that is until Dad smells minty chocolate on his morning breath. The boy ate all the remaining kisses, all 12 of them, and hid the wrappers under his pillow! Sneaky little fella.

Santa visited our trailer on Christmas Eve. He left Cora a fashion conscious Ken doll complete with three sets of clothes, white loafers, pink cardigan and silver shades. Oh and some socks. For Caleb, he left a toy truck, a stuffed Rexy, and more socks. Caleb had asked the mall Santa for a big remote controlled Rexy. Santa couldn't find this and even if he had, he knows we don't have room for anything "big." I said look Caleb, Santa brought you a Rexy!." He looked at it and said, "Yeah I know. It doesn't work."

Close was not close enough.

Everything on Christmas morning was wonderful and we were able to have all the wrappers in the trash and dinner mostly ready before my family arrived that afternoon. They drove up to spend about a week with us. As always, it was great to see them and the kids loved spending the night in "Grandpa's Hotel."

At this point, I'd like to take back all my blissful chants and joyous thoughts about snowy Colorado days. With this last snowfall, the over night temps ranged from -15 to -20 wind chill. We heat taped and insulated our water hose and thought we'd be good to go with our heated underbelly. After all we had no problems last winter in TEXAS when it dropped to 13.
Silly Texans. When we woke we still had water running into the trailer, but some of the inside lines froze. We had zero hot water and cold water only in the bathroom not in the kitchen. Plus the sewer line was frozen solid. Thankfully, this park has nice showers and after two days the sun came out and we were able to thaw out.

Despite the freezing, Colorado is amazingly beautiful and the snow can be fun, but the best part of living here is being able to see our old friends who we have missed terribly. We rang in the New Year with good food, good drinks, good conversation, and great friends. We talked and played games while all the children ran around and watched movies. We had such a lovely evening that I forgot to take pictures. Not even any of the kids. Shucks.

Now that the holidays are over, we are trying to start back into a school routine. We are still using Heart of Dakota. Cora is completing her Kindergarten curriculum and Caleb is starting his preschool curriculum. This is my first time really attempting to combine two grade levels. Which, honestly isn't that hard at this age. Now if I could just get back into a rhythm of combining school with all our other household activities. This is just day two, and I'm sure we'll get into a nice comfortable pattern just in time to load up and hit the road.

Sure it's crazy sometimes, but I still love our life. Happy New Year!